Advocate Health Care Network wins summary judgment in off-the-clock wage and hour suit
Client(s) Advocate Health Care Network
On August 7, 2015, Jones Day obtained summary judgment for Advocate Health Care Network (Advocate) on most of Plaintiff's overtime claims.
Plaintiff Sharon Roberts is a former employee of Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center who worked as a registered nurse team lead in the Cardiac Catheterization Lab and now claims that Advocate violated the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA") and the Illinois Minimum Wage Law ("IMWL") by failing to pay her for all of the overtime work she performed. Plaintiff claimed she performed uncompensated overtime work through post-shift meetings with her supervisor, skipped or interrupted lunches, and time spent addressing off-shift phone, text, and pager communications.
The court granted summary judgment and dismissed Plaintiff's claims related to the post-shift meetings and lunches because there was no evidence Advocate knew that Plaintiff did not record that time. Specifically, Plaintiff did not complain to any supervisors, did not argue that Advocate would not have paid her had she corrected her time, and the "uncontroverted evidence" showed that Advocate paid Plaintiff for all of the overtime she recorded. Accordingly, the Court granted Advocate summary judgment as to Plaintiff's claims of: (1) unpaid overtime based on the post-shift meetings with her supervisor; and (2) unpaid overtime for allegedly skipped or interrupted lunches. As to alleged unpaid overtime associated with pager, text, and email communication, the court lamented that Plaintiff "deluged the court with stacks of pager, text, and email records" without specifically demonstrating proof of unpaid overtime and asked Advocate to present the Court with additional briefing on this issue after meeting and conferring with Plaintiff's counsel to narrow the issues.
Sharon Roberts v. Advocate Health Care Network, case no. 14-cv-00442 (N.D. Ill)
